Bill Murray’s Groundhog Day To Get The Musical Treatment From Tim Minchin

As a massive fan of comedian and songwriter Tim Minchin, news that he intends to adapt the seminal Bill Murray movie Groundhog Day into a musical can only be a great thing.

Australian polymath Minchin has a proven track record with musical success both on stage and behind the scenes. He is the musical mastermind behind West End and Broadway success Matilda. He also played Judas Escariot in the recent reboot of the Andrew Lloyd Webber rock-opera Jesus Christ Superstar.

According to reports, the star will be teaming up with Matilda director Matthew Warchus and scriptwriter Danny Rudin, who wrote the 1993 comedy. Minchin had said in July 2013 that he was working on a new musical based on a much loved early-90’s film.

Writing on his blog on Sunday, Minchin said that the musical version of the 1993 Bill Murray and Andie MacDowell comedy will be very different to the much loved movie.

“Our version of Groundhog Day is going to be both instantly recognizable, and utterly different. The central conceit is perfectly suited to the theatre, in my opinion. In fact, I think many of its ideas could be enhanced by the stage. It has the potential to be complex, dark, visually fascinating, and thematically rich, whilst still being a joyous romantic comedy with cool tunes and lots of gags. It’s certainly not an easy job, and I’m truly honoured – and genuinely excited – that Danny is letting me have a crack at it.”

However let’s not all rush to grab our tickets as it could be as late as 2016 when the musical finally makes it debut, and it is not known at present whether it will open in London or on Broadway.

Tim also let slip on the post that he played a couple of the songs earmarked for the show at a London gig a few weeks ago. “I actually played two of the ballads from GhD at Koko in Camden a few weeks ago. Not sure whether, out of context, they meant anything to those of you who were there, but I hope you enjoyed them”.

As we hear any more on this extremely exciting project we will let you know, however if Groundhog Day is treated with the same love and respect that Matilda was, then we are going to be in for a treat as a record breaking seven Olivier Awards and four Tony awards can’t be wrong.